More...

Pre-tax
profit surged 72 per cent although operating
profit – stripping out one-off
gains such as the £412million profit
from selling 50 per cent of FTSE International
– was up 12 per cent to £942million.

Penguin publishing recorded
operating profits up 8 per cent to £111million
as eBook sales for gadgets such as
Amazon’s Kindle soared by 106 per cent.

The FT Group saw sales rise 7 per cent to £427million, driving a 17 per cent rise in
underlying profit to £76million.

A record 600,000 people paid for
either the print or online version of
the FT, its highest ever circulation,
while more than half of US users
opted for the web edition for the
first time. But Scardino predicted
that advertising revenue would
remain weak in 2011 and would not
return to ‘the heady days of 2001’.

She added that she was ‘a bit
sad’ that FT staff threatening
strike action had refused to accept
an offer including a 3.5 per cent pay rise
and no compulsory redundancies.

Pearson (down 47p to 1204p) has
£1bn firepower for acquisitions.

Directors have agreed not to take
a 2 per cent pay rise this year, said Scardino,
who earned a pay and bonus
package worth £2.5million last year.